A tiny worm made of metal.
It has been a concept and a nightmare that robots might replace human in the near future. But this concept has been easily coming true because the field of medical technology is somehow giving it a chance.
A team of researchers at the Seoul National University in South Korea has invented a tiny robot.
It can run in sans battery and it aims to aid in delivering drugs to human skin in the future. The study was just published last week.
These tiny robots are called hygrobots. It was inspired by the Pelargonium carnosum seed. Its seeds can screw themselves into the ground. As well as the pine cone that opens and closes depending on humidity.
The hygrobot has two layers made out of nanofibrs. One layer absorbs moisture, and the other doesn’t.
The nano fiber hygrobot wriggled and crawled like a worm when it came in contact with moisture. But when it is dry, it will go back to its original state, moving in the opposite direction.
In a demo made by the researchers, they filled the hygrobots with an antibiotic. And it moved across a Petri dish. It left behind a sterilized trail, a bit like a slug would leave a trail of slime in its wake.
These tiny yet useful robot will prove to be a breakthrough in the medical world. In the near future, researchers hope and look forward that the hygrobots will be of great help to human. It will be the very first of its kind to deliver drugs to human body just by using skin’s moisture.
Last year, researchers created a hydrogel bot that’s activated by magnet. It was said that it could release localized dozes of chemo to treat tumors.
